Gram negative bacterial endotoxin is a widespread contaminant of a variety of materials, such as water, food, pharmaceutical products, and parenteral preparations. The most commonly used tests for endotoxin contamination employ amebocyte lysates derived from horseshoe crab hemolymph. As populations of these animals decreases, however, it becomes increasingly important to develop rapid and reliable methods for detecting endotoxin that do not rely on the availability of horseshoe crab hemolymph.